Indirect questions

“Where is the station?” is a direct question. “Could you tell me where the station is?” asks the same thing more politely.

Start with a polite opening

Useful openings include Could you tell me…?, Do you know…? and I’d like to know…. After the opening, use statement word order: subject before verb.

• Direct: Where does Ana live?
• Indirect: Do you know where Ana lives?

The inner clause is where Ana lives, not where does Ana live. The opening phrase already makes the whole sentence a question.

Questions with and without a question word

Keep where, what, when, how or why when the direct question has one:

• What time does the film start? → Could you tell me what time the film starts?
• Why did he leave? → Do you know why he left?

For a yes/no question, introduce the inner clause with if or whether:

• Is the café open? → Do you know if the café is open?
• Did Maya call? → Could you tell me whether Maya called?

Keep the outer question and the inner clause separate

In Could you tell me where the station is?, the outer question is Could you tell me ...?. Inside it, where the station is uses subject-verb order.

A useful way to see the structure is:

Could you tell me [where the station is]?

The brackets are a learning aid. The whole sentence asks for information, but the inner clause does not use the inversion of a direct question.

Do/does/did were helping form the direct question. Once that inversion is removed, the ordinary positive verb carries the tense.

Do not change the time unnecessarily

Where does he live? → Do you know where he lives? stays present. Adding a polite opening does not require backshift.

Compare She asked where he lived, a report of an earlier question. That is reported speech, where a past viewpoint may change the tense. An indirect question to your current listener and a report of a past question are related structures, but their time choices depend on different contexts.

A reliable method

1. Write the direct question.
2. Add a suitable opening.
3. Turn the remaining question into subject + verb order.
4. Remove do/does/did if it was only helping form the direct question.

Where did they go? → Can you tell me where they went?

If the opening is a question, end the whole sentence with a question mark. I wonder where they went. is a statement and ends with a full stop.

Use the construction in a real enquiry

At a station, you might ask:

Could you tell me what time the next train leaves?
Do you know whether it stops at the airport?
Could you tell me where I can buy a ticket?

Each question keeps a simple inner order: the train leaves, it stops, I can buy. Whether connects a yes/no question when there is no original question word.

For ordinary B1 enquiries, if and whether are often interchangeable: Do you know if/whether the ticket is valid? They do not mean a condition here; they introduce the thing you want to know.

The opening decides the final punctuation

Could you tell me where Jo is? has a question mark. I'd like to know where Jo is is grammatically a statement, even though it requests information in context, so use a full stop.

I wonder whether Jo is at home also has statement order. Do not write I wonder is Jo at home.

A subject question can stay looking similar: Who called? → Do you know who called?. Who is already the subject of called, so there is no extra subject to move. Compare Who did you call? → Do you know who you called?, where you is the subject.

A polite opening is useful when asking a stranger or an office for information, but direct questions can also be polite: Where is the station, please? is natural. Choose the form that suits the conversation and keep it clear. You do not need several long openings in the same question.

For revision, read the words after where/when/if as an ordinary statement. That helps you spot where is the office and replace it with where the office is.

Sources and further reading

• Cambridge University Press: Indirect questions — coursebook extract